2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz debuts as a compact and stylish alternative to bulky pickups

• Hyundai on Thursday debuted its long-awaited Santa Cruz pickup.
• The small pickup will hit the market this summer as a 2022 model.
• Hyundai hasn't released pricing yet.

For years, Hyundai has teased plans to bring a pickup truck to market. It's finally here.

The Korean automaker on Thursday unveiled the long-anticipated 2022 Santa Cruz. The small pickup should be a breath of fresh air for consumers unsatisfied by the trucks available today, which tend to be largely mean, giant, and not terribly efficient.

Essentially a Hyundai crossover with a bed where the trunk would be, the Santa Cruz carries on a tradition of car-based pickups that have all but vanished in the US. Buyers used to be able to get a Chevrolet El Camino, Ford Ranchero, or, briefly, a Subaru Baja if they wanted something that straddles the line between a normal car and a pickup.

But those models went away and never came back.

The Santa Cruz fills that void with a pickup that's more compact than anything else on the market. At 195.7 inches long, it's a full 16.5 inches shorter than a Toyota Tacoma and more than a foot shorter than the Honda Ridgeline, one of its key rivals. It's a bit smaller than the Nissan Frontier, too.

Sporting a four-foot bed, the pickup is targeted less at people looking to haul sheets of plywood and more at outdoorsy folks who need somewhere to chuck dirty bikes and camping equipment. It also has an under-bed storage area.

Hyundai calls it a "segment-shattering" "Sport Adventure Vehicle" rather than a pickup.

The Santa Cruz comes with two engine options: a 2.5-liter engine worth 180 horsepower and 190 lb-ft of torque, along with a 2.5-liter turbocharged engine that Hyundai says puts out 275 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque. All-wheel drive is available for both models, and the turbo version can tow up to 5,000 lbs in all-wheel-drive configuration, according to Hyundai.

The Santa Cruz doesn't have a price yet, but Hyundai will want it to be competitive with the Honda Ridgeline, which goes for around $36,000 and up. It'll likely compete closely with Ford's upcoming compact pickup, expected to debut this year.

It'll be built at Hyundai's Montgomery, Alabama, plant starting in June.